I received a message from Dave on my Ring Finders South Jersey page stating that he lost his wedding band. I contacted him immediately and arrived at the beach shortly after. After speaking with Dave about where the lost ring might be, the search was on! The ring was found and returned after a quick grid search near the water’s edge!!! The couple is now able to enjoy the rest of their vacation in Ocean City, New Jersey!
It was a busy day for Big Island Metal Detecting!
Two desperate callers rang within 10 minutes of each other requesting searches for their lost jewelry.
What started out as two recoveries ended with the discovery of a third ring!
Since all searches are time-sensitive, Sylvie searched one beach looking for the lost wedding ring – while Brent searched another beach with his friend for a lost earing.
During his search, Brent found a very large ring under the water with the inscription “Dario Loves Fallon” written on the outside.
As the ring did not belong to either client, we went to work to track down the owner, a feat we thought would be nearly impossible, especially without a last name to search the World Wide Web!
A Google search turned up only one page that promised a little hope of identifying the owner. A Go Fund Me webpage had the matching names, “…Dario, Fallon’s husband..” The Go Fund Me page was set up to request contributions because Fallon had a life-threatening medical emergency and required immediate surgery. Following the page links and using the new details, it was then possible to then find their Facebook pages – which indeed had photos of them on the Big Island of Hawaii a month earlier!
We were excited and emotional at the prospect of having found the owner – and if this was indeed them, then we knew that such fantastic news would be welcome news due to their current, grave situation. Rings can be so incredibly sentimental and in our experience, it can make such a huge difference to have a ring returned that was thought to be gone forever. We sent a message to them on Facebook and excitedly checked the next morning for a response.
Dario Palavra replied, “I’m so shocked that you guys found my ring. We were just in Hawaii in August!.It is my wedding ring – my wife has a matching ring. I figured it was long gone. I thought I lost it in the deep water since I love to swim. I’m so happy that you guys found it – since we got back from Hawaii we been dealing with a lot of health problems with my wife – I almost lost her – she had less than 10% chance of living and now when you tell me you found our wedding ring, that is amazing. Once I get it back it is going to be glued to my finger!!!”
We express mailed the ring to Dario, and soon afterwards got a photo of him wearing the ring he thought he would never see again!
If you’re interested further in this story – or would like to read about Fallon’s Go-Fund-Me page, go to :
https://www.gofundme.com/GoTeamFallon
Big Island Metal Detecting 
It didn’t take us long to meet up with newlyweds Paul and Barbara on the beach after we’d gotten their call.
Paul was an Irishman with a new American lass for a wife – but Barbara had done all of the talking on the phone as Paul’s Irish accent was so thick. « Are you Ring Finders? » she asked.
As soon as we heard that Paul hadn’t seen his ring all day we knew we’d have a challenge. And they didn’t know where it could have been lost…!
Paul and Barbara had been married just five days earlier and were enjoying the restaurants and shops near their hotel here on the Big Island of Hawaii. As Paul tried on some Maui Jim sunglasses, he looked as his hand to admire this wedding ring – which was missing!
They’d seen a detectorist in the early morning combing the beach and didn’t want to loose their ring forever – so looked us up online to find and return their ring. We got to their hotel as soon as possible and decided that the small bay they’d spent the morning swimming in was a good place to start. Again, they weren’t sure if it was lost in the water, the sand, the hotel or the shops…!
Brent Madison of Big Island Metal Detecting explains the basics of the Excalibur II metal detector and how small, lost gold rings can turn into big, found signals for recovery. Big Island, Hawaii.
Paul wasn’t a strong swimmer so we were confident that scuba wouldn’t be necessary though we’d packed our dive gear in the car.
I looked where Paul had rented a stand-up paddleboard while Sylvie searched the sandy bottom where Paul had remembered swimming in the warm, tropical waters of the bay.
Sylvie and I started our grid pattern searches with our metal detectors.
Beaches on the Big Island of Hawaii are so heavily searched by treasure hunters that neither of us hit any of the trash often found on other beaches around the world. We were well into our search pattern – at least 45 minutes – when I heard my name called and saw Paul and Sylvie « high-five’ing » nearby.
Sylvie had been carefully following her search pattern and talking to Paul as he snorkeled and bobbed around her. Suddenly she’d hit a « huge target » in her underwater headphones – then as suddenly, lost the signal. She was so deep in the water that she couldn’t hold the target under her detector and dig the target at the same time.
Sylvie Madison of Big Island Metal Detecting gears up with her Garrett Sea Hunter metal detector to look in the water for a lost, men’s wedding ring. Big Island, Hawaii.
« Hold the detector here! » she told Paul, handing him her Garrett SeaHunter II, after she’d reacquired the signal. Sylvie dug and nothing. Then dug in the sandy bottom again.
In her scoop was Paul’s lost ring straining out of the sand. Barbara had been watching from beachside and rushed into the water when Sylvie pulled it from her scoop.
We all stood in the water admiring their newly found wedding ring, delighted together in Sylvie’s find. We laughed that Paul could start relaxing again on his honeymoon!
A platinum wedding ring which was lost and found on the beaches of the Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii.
Not knowing where they’d lost it, it seemed it had been the luck of the Irish to reunite them – a small ring in such a large world! Barbara was quick to qualify the reason – she’d been praying to St. Anthony, her patron saint, since they’d discovered the ring had been missing.
God knows the reasons some rings are found or not – and in the end, Paul, Barbara and us at Big Island Metal Detecting are all thankful that we could be part of the discovery of their lost treasure. Especially so early on in their new marriage!
Sylvie, Paul, Barbara and Brent give the Hawaiian « shaka » after their successful recovery of Paul’s lost wedding band. Big Island, Hawaii.
Thursday 6-25-15
Paul works as a instructor for Hurley Surf Camp. His office is on the sand in Newport Beach, CA. Every week day they set up a large beach awnings in the dry sand, mostly in the same general location.
Wednesday after returning home Paul could not find his wedding band in his backpack. He keeps it in the back pack for safekeeping while teaching clients to surf. He was not sure but he thought it could have fallen out during the day when he got things from his backpack.
I was able to get to his location within 30 minutes. Paul was in the water but another instructor was able to show me the general area. After covering most of the location, I received a signal that was broken. TheTDI reading on my detector was close to a penny reading. I dug the signal figuring it may be two separate pieces of metal. No, just Paul’s nice 14k gold wedding band. It’s always good to remember the 14k gold is 60% pure and 40% alloy making the TDI readings different depending on the alloy and the size of the ring.
Paul was surprised and grateful. As I left the beach, I heard him telling other people on the beach about TheRingFinders.